Maine PIRG In The News

We're getting greener

As universities nationwide are "going green," USM is keeping up with the pace

Sarah Trent

A pair of students sit reading in the leather couches in the corner nook of the Abromson Center next to the twenty-foot-tall table-and-chairs sculpture on the first floor. A gray-haired woman smiles from the reception desk, and upstairs the doors to the skywalk swish open and closed. Above the doors facing Bedford Street is a small sign that generally goes unnoticed: lit up in green letters, the word 'Exit.'

It's a green sign, coincidentally, in a "green" building: the Abromson Community Education Center, built next to the campus parking garage, opened in April, 2005, and was awarded a "Gold" LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the United States Green Building Council for its environmentally responsible design.

Included in its gold-level design are the exit signs, which alone save the university thousands of dollars in electricity. The typical exit sign used at USM, according to Dudley Greeley, the coordinator of environmental and economic sustainability in facilities management, costs $50 per year to run, and results in more than three hundred pounds of greenhouse gas emissions being dumped into the atmosphere. The green signs in the Abromson Center produce only three pounds of air-polluting greenhouse gas emissions and annually cost the university a mere thirty five cents.

As campuses around the country look toward a greener future, USM is keeping pace. The Abromson Center, one of nine LEED-registered or certified projects currently underway at the university, was the first gold-level building in Maine, the fifth in New England, and the 89th in the country.

"This is very much a competition," said Greeley of the unspoken race between institutions such as Dartmouth, Harvard, other large universities, and Fortune 500 companies to design and implement the best, greenest, highest-rated buildings.

"Harvard has trillions of dollars in funding," he said, "and they have thirteen LEED projects." USM, he points out, is broke, and still has nine, which he says is a demonstration of our commitment to being a good role model, using a responsible amount of energy, and not externalizing costs-especially in health, environment, and fossil fuel usage-to other communities and individuals simply so that we can keep an exit sign lit.

USM has spent the last ten years addressing issues of sustainability, from using solar-heated showers in the Sullivan Gym to installing Energy-Star appliances in the dormitories. Over the past few years, a majority of new buildings and renovations have been built with LEED standards in mind: the John Mitchell Center addition in Gorham is certified, the Abromson Center is gold, and the new childcare center and New Hall, both in Gorham, received silver ratings. The Wishcamper Center, which is two projects-the Muskie School of Public Service and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute-under one registration, is aiming for a gold rating, despite using glass on almost every outside surface.

Other projects include a Lewiston-Auburn addition, the Glickman Library entrance addition which has not yet begun, as well as adjustments proposed to the Glickman Library itself, which will be the first LEED project in Maine to address an already-existing building.

Every other campus in the UMaine system is dedicated to building "green," partly in an effort to comply with Chancellor Richard Pattenaude's "Agenda for Action" which calls for a plan on environmental leadership as well as climate and carbon neutrality within two years. He asks that the principles of environmental leadership be "embedded in the curriculum, building standards, energy usage, recycling programs, transportation, and monitoring systems," and is requiring each university to take two steps this year to work toward the system-wide goals.

The University of South Carolina has developed a plan to make their residential system greener, which included switching to flat-screen LCD computer monitors in university housing, which will save a projected $8,000 in electrical costs, and changing all 172 of their washers and dryers to more efficient models, which will save $19,600 in electric and water bills, as well as reduce water use by 2 million gallons annually. At the time the plan was written, a new "green" dormitory for 500 students was under construction that was projected to reduce water consumption by 20% and energy consumption by 30% as compared to non-green residence halls. The university projected an annual savings of about $50,000, and was building the dorm for the same cost as earlier, traditional residence halls.

According to "The Report Card," an independent evaluation by the Sustainable Endowments Institute looking at sustainability on the 200 public and private schools receiving the highest endowments, 45% of campuses have cut carbon emissions and 59% have high green building-standards for new buildings. Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of Vermont, Middlebury, and Carleton College were leading the pack, while schools like Juilliard and Regent University were falling behind.

With 9 LEED projects in the works, as well as efforts across campus to cut energy and water consumption in buildings both new and old, USM is not only leading Maine efforts to go green, but, as Greeley says, "is a national leader in terms of numbers and significant renovations."

"USM decided to build better buildings," said Greeley, "saving money, and making a healthier environment for everyone." Partly it's to be a role model, partly it's to attract students and community members who are concerned about ecological and economic use, but also, "being recognized as a leader engaged in desirable practices" has gotten USM several donations: an anonymous donor put an array of solar panels on top of the Abromson Center which could run two average households for a year, giving USM a little bit of free power for 35-45 years. Someone else donated a solar-thermal addition to the childcare center. These are $70,000 in donations that we would not have had without LEED projects.

Facilities management and the office of sustainability are not the only entities looking toward a greener university. Emily Fehrenbacher, the campus organizer provided by Maine PIRG, lists a handful of groups who are independently working on projects, including the environmental science student organization, PIRG itself, and the sustainability floor in New Hall. "There are so many ideas out there right now," says Fehrenbacher, "We're looking at the larger impact on the environment, and running a university in a way that can, despite whatever happens to oil and other resources, keep going."

AJ Chalifour, the student body president, has seen first-hand the efforts of the administration: "I was worried we were falling being on the early steps to make [Chancellor Pattenaude's] plan happen." He cites the budget crisis as the primary force distracting the university and the UMaine system. Chalifour believes that because Wood is here only temporarily, his focus has been to make immediate and drastic changes in university reorganization, while former president Pattenaude's plans for sustainability at USM have fallen a little behind.

At the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, the board pledged to have the requested sustainability plan ready for a pre-vote in January.

As PIRG, Dudley Greeley, and others continue to work toward a greener, more climate-neutral campus, Chalifour makes a promise to USM: "I'm going to make sure it's clear in the current presidential search that sustainability is a commitment that USM has, and that students want."

Meanwhile, those students are driving down Bedford Street past the construction on the Wishcamper Center, parking in the garage, and walking through the clean and open Abromson Center, passing beneath that green exit sign, and heading off to class.